So as you see from the table to gain weight we need to consume more calories than we are burning. To do this you need to add between 200-500 more calories to your diet so you are consuming more during the day that you burn. To start off with if 200 more calories per day are consumed you should get an increase of about one pound or 0.5kg per week, this is a safe way to gain weight.

I have added 200 more calories on top of the amount we worked out earlier to sustain his current lifestyle as we want to increase his bodyweight. So the 24 year old bricklayer with an active lifestyle will have to consume 3340 calories per day. Now we have to break this down into macronutrients so how much protein, carbs and fat do we need to buid muscle.

This chart shows the percentage split that should be aimed for when trying to build muscle.

Carbohydrates = 60-70% Protein = 20-30% Fat = less than 20%

Now to work out the amounts. I know it is a lot of working out but if you want to gain weight and build muscle you will need sit down and work it out, it should only take 10 minutes or so.

Getting the amount is an easy one:

Divide the total calorie amount by 100 to get 1 percent which is 33.4

Then multiply 33.4 by what percent you need so for carbs we would multiply 33.4 by 50 which is 1670(calories)

Then we need to divide this number by 4 (because there is 4 calories in 1 gram of carbs) and we get 417 so we need to consume 417 grams of carbs.